Planning & Facilitating

WORKSHOPS
Quick start guide
 CONTENT
Preparation 4
Setting the Atmosphere 5
The Roles 8
Methods & Material 13
To Facilitate 19
The Phases 21
Summary 23
PREPARATION
The first step when deciding to have a workshop is preparation.
Plan the structure of the workshop thoroughly and have a clear
idea on the purpose of all the parts. Normally you want to start
big and creative and then work yourself down to reality,
problem solving and decision making.
By being thorough planning this you always have something to
lean back on and it´s also easier to change the structure as you
go along, for instance if parts of it doesn’t work takes longer
time than expected, which actually quite often happens.
For further inspiration check out the template on the site:
Before workshop – preparation.
When all the preparations on the structure and the
participants are ready, it’s time to prepare the room.
Here people often get sloppy, but this is actually really
important in building a good creative atmosphere and
structure.
First find a good room and make sure it´s arranged so
people see each other. See to it that you have post its,
good felt pens, tape and flip chart available.
Always try and work with visualization of some
sort. Put up the agenda and the purpose of the
workshop on the wall so it’s always visible.
A parking spot is also a good thing to keep in hand. It’s
basically a flip chart with a big “P” on it, on which you and
the participants can park discussions that aren’t helping
the purpose of this particular workshop, but can still be
important for another forum. By putting it visible you
both endorse the discussion and the person who talked
about it, which supports the positive environment.
SETTING THE ATMOSPHERE
 THE ICE BREAKER
Setting a good atmosphere is crucial to get a good result of the workshop. The
less people know each other the more time it´s worth to spend on this. The
method to use is called an ice breaker or a check in.

Instead of just using a boring introduction of the participants, an ice breaker not
only brings forward a positive and creative environment, but also an
opportunity to set the right focus and leave any distractions from previous
meetings or tasks outside the door.

There are tons of methods to use, both long and short. Look at some of them
on the next slide.
THE ICE BREAKER

Years in the company

The participants are lined up in a row. You ask them to order
themselves according to how many years they worked in the
company. In order to do that they need interact with each other.
You then split the group in two and let the most experienced talk
to the newbies.

Where you born vs where you want to wake up

The participants are lined up in a row. You ask them the order
themselves geographically were they were born (north vs south).
In order to do that they need interact with each other. After they
done that, you ask them to order themselves according to were
they would like to wake up if anything was possible.

Who Is It?
The participants write down something about themselves they
think no one knows. The leader reads the slips of paper and the
others guess whom the person is. It is amazing to see the things
some people reveal about themselves.

Two Truths and a Lie

Have participants say three things about themselves. Two should
be true and one should be a lie. The other participants then
guess which response was a lie and give their reasoning.

Common Ground
In small groups, have participants come up with six things they
all have in common and have them share these with the large
group.
THE ROLES
THE FACILITATOR

The facilitator is the leader of the meeting, and has a certain
responsibility that differs from the other participants.
It’s the art to lead a group of people through the process and to
the agreed purpose of the workshop in a way that creates
participation, ownership and creativity in all the participants.
As a facilitator you don’t just have one role- but many.
Sometimes a lot of steering and monitoring is needed,
other times just brief instructions or in-put.
During one and the same workshop or meeting, all roles
can be part of your set up and ways of working.

Focus on the group and what's going on and at the same time See some of the common roles on the next slide.
keep track on time.

Below some of the typical responsibilities are listed.

Main Responsibilities
 Lead the process towards the purpose and stick to the time table
 Make sure that all participants are involved; which sometimes means to encourage the silent
and silent the loud
 Make sure that everyone understands. Ask questions, be curious, but neutral and stick to the
facts
 Manage the unexpected, conflicts and different wills
 Try to create a joyful and positive environment and always take notice of and support the
group’s energy
THE FACILITATOR

The Fireman Taking out discussions when needed

The Conductor Just keeping pace when all is smooth and on
target
The Judge Deciding and clarifying injustice
The Doctor Finding weak spots and daring to confront
symptoms.
As a leader
If you also are leading the group your
facilitating there are a few other things to
consider:
• Notify when you step out of character

• Don’t have the result ready in your pocket.

The Pedagogy Explaining and leading, finding the right methods
The participants can sense that and you risk
for the purpose
loosing their motivation. If you already have
a solution, be clear and honest with that
The Guard Keeping structure and staying on track

The Wizard Finding key words in a chaos of words and ideas

The Creator Finding new ways around obstacles

Guide Leading the way and guiding groups to set them on track
THE DOCUMENTER

Often the facilitator or the participants do most of the

documentation, but sometimes you might have the luxury to
have a resource dedicated to that role.

The responsibilities of a Documenter is to document the

discussions of the workshop.

Try to keep all documentations open and visually

displayed in the room. Its good for both repetition and
teaching but also the psychological effect for the group to
see progress.

Regardless who´s doing the documentations make sure you

use the participants own formulations, it creates an
ownership.

A good way is to actually ask the participants for permission

how to write the statement. The best solution however is to
make the participants document themselves with the help of
posits or flipcharts as your tools.
THE PARTICIPANT

Last but not least are the participants themselves, or active

contributors as they also can be called.

Their job is to be active, focused and follow the agreed rules.

It’s always good for them to be aware of these expectations.
METHODS & MATERIAL
 METHODS & MATERIAL
To make the progress go forward it’s important to design your workshop using
the most suitable methods for the group and purpose you stated. Often in
ordinary meetings you mostly have table discussions which sometimes can be
good, but often tend to be a bit too time consuming, unbalanced and
monotonous. Get the guideline on the facilitation site to achieve your planned
results.

As for the Ice breaker there is in this case also a lot of different methods many
with different purposes and characteristics.

On the upcoming slides follows a few of them.

BRAINSTORMING

Brainstorming is usable when there´s a need to find many new

ideas and new creative solutions. The idea with brainstorming is
not focus on reality and problems, its absolutely forbidden. Its
about focusing on possibilities, stress the brain and thus
creating a creative chaos. By that you challenge yourself to think
outside the box.

How?
You work in groups with flip charts, the white board or post-its
and try to come up with as many ideas as you can during a time
limit between 10-30 minutes, depending how many you are.

Clustering might be needed afterwards in order categorize all

the ideas.
THE TALKING STICK

The talking stick (laget runt)

A variant of an old democratic activity originally common in
aboriginal tribes. The talking stick is a plenum exercise, but
instead of setting the discussion free everybody gets a chance to
speak and listen and thus no energy or focus will be spent in
trying to get your own word out. By doing the exercise you´ll
also break existing patterns and hierarchies in the group.

How?
Everyone gets a decided amount of time to speak. One person is
selected to keep track on that time. Let everyone prepare a bit
before starting.
WORLD CAFE

During a World Cafe exercise, well formulated questions are

discussed by several groups parallel at different tables. The
exercises is really usable when wanting to get a common view in
a group or anchoring a message. Its very suitable to use in a big
group. Many then gets a chance to talk to each other and its
much easier to have conversations in smaller groups.

How?
You work in groups (max 6 participants in each). Each have
different (or the same) subjects to discuss. Every group appoints
one documenter, who writes down the key points of the
discussion. After about 15 minutes of discussions, all but the
documenter switch table and the exercise continues. When it´s
over the documenter sums up the discussions in plenum.
DE BONOS THINIKING HATS

The Maltese psychologist Edward the Bono's method to build

different viewpoints by working with one of totally six different
perspectives at a time. Its usable when wanting to analyze,
reflect or clarify around an area, but its also good when wanting
to question an existing truth.

How?
Each hat represents one perspective:

Red – Passion & feeling

White – Objectivity (facts, numbers and information)
Green – Creativity & Innovation
Black – Risks (everything that can go wrong)
Yellow – Only possibilities
Blue – Control and analytic

Walk through the definitions with the group and divide it to

smaller groups and distribute the hats (doesn't need to be
actual hats) in the group. Ask the smaller groups to discuss a
problem or a question from the perspective of their hat. The
group then documents and present their discussions.
TO FACILITATE
ASK QUESTIONS

An important part of being a Facilitator is to ask questions. It is you most efficient tool.

You can with the help of the questions get different ”directions” in the forum and in that way keep the activity level up and
lead the whole group towards the goal.

Common Questions
• Can you say it in a different way so that • What I hear you saying is that ....?
I understand? • If I understand you here, it could be that…?
• How do you mean by…..? • When you say xxxx – does that mean…?
• Can you explain a little further? • Do I understand you correctly that you mean that ….?
• Can you specify more? • Is that something that the rest of you also…?
• Can it be that ...?
THE PROCESS
THE PHASES

Every workshop will pass through different phases. Its important to allow them to happen, just be patient as a facilitator. The
circle viewed here will probably be worked through several times during the WS. Chaos can sometimes be good. It shows
commitment. Get the template on the facilitation site to ensure progress and value creation.

CONSENSUS CHAOS CREATIVITY

CRITICISM